A Preston poet has won a national competition for creating a sweet little ditty. You can watch it being read above or if you’re using our app click here to watch.

Phil Howard, 66, was selected as the winner in the Divine Poetry Competition.

It was a themed competition with entrants asked to write a poem on the theme of ‘When I grow up I want to be a cocoa farmer.”

Children’s author and poet John Dougherty was among the judges who selected the Penwortham poet as the winner.

He said: “The winner of our Adult competition was Phil’s poem, Sweet Ambition. We chose it because it’s witty, it’s light-hearted with a real sense of humour and a lively individual voice.

“I like poetry, I think it’s really important as a culture that we get better at expressing ourselves with words and finding new ways of expressing ourselves.

“I was delighted to be a judge because, I like chocolate but I also like fairness and I’m a real supporter of any company that promotes Fairtrade. And Divine goes even further than that, they don’t just trade fairly with farmers, they’re actually co-owned by the farmers who produce the cocoa. Which is an amazing way of flipping our commercial system on its head.”

Mr Howard, who works for Preston City Council, wins a special Divine chocolate hamper, book tokens, Christian Aid badges and pens, and a certificate.

He said: “I am really pleased to have won a national poetry competition.

“I can’t emphasise enough how vibrant the Preston poetry scene is at the moment. That in turn has helped encourage and inspire me to keep writing poetry.”

Phil’s poem Sweet Ambition in full

When I grow up, y’ get me,

I wanna be a cocoa farmer, let me,

If I’m not it’s gonna upset me.
See, thanks to Fairtrade I’m goin’ to school now,

Thanks to Fairtrade I’m nobody’s fool now,

So, like, I think Fairtrade’s totally cool now
‘cos for cocoa beans and crops like rice, see,

Thanks to Fairtrade farmers get a fair price, see,

So I think that Fairtrade is nice, see.
I could teach or be a lawyer if I chose to be,

I could be my Country’s president if I rose to be,

But a farmer I would exchange blows to be.
See, it’s all down to companies like Divine, right,

The way that they work is divine, right?

Making fair prices for farmers a divine right.
So this land I’m gonna endow, now,

My dad’s gonna show me how, now,

How to be a cocoa farmer, now – wow!